Full Time Recruiting from Target School for PERE without return offer from junior internship
I'm a rising senior at a target school for many real estate megafunds and interned at a reputable family office doing RE asset management. I did not receive a return offer for reasons I understand and recognized during the internship, and also did not want to return because of location and work culture. I have been told that not having a return offer may hurt my chances at FT recruiting, and I was wondering what people's experiences and thoughts were on that from both a recruiting and recruiter perspective. Are interviewees often asked if they received a return offer (instead of why they aren't returning), and how much does this hurt my chances at megafunds? What answer did you give when asked why you weren't returning or didn't get a return offer? All insights greatly appreciated.
Mega funds aren’t taking you fresh out of college if you didn’t intern there, at least not for acquisitions or asset management. You can still land a good gig, but will probably be closer to graduation.
False
I’ve never seen it done. Have multiple close friends that work at MFs and work at a well regarded shop myself for the last 6-7 months. Never taken someone as a first year who hasn’t interned here and have passed on multiple interns we didn’t like. If you’ve seen it done then I have no issue saying I’m wrong.
Bump
Well, I think the first thing is what were the reasons? Second, if the location is something you don't like then you can reasonably say that you expressed a disinterest in the location early on and just don't provide any further information.
First, this post/question leads to some just curious questions..... (note my POV on this is from the view of employer... it's been a long while since I was in UG)
- Do firms really ask why or even if you got a return FT offer from an internship? Seems like if you did get one, you would prob take it 90% of the time, thus wouldn't be applying or continuing with the interview process. Still, I'd guess the reason for the inquiry would be to see if you were still "on the market", like why mess with someone who thinks they will be working elsewhere if you can figure that out (like in the situation, the FT offer is pending/being negotiated).
- I can totally see how the get an offer/not getting an offer could come up in convo of interviews.... but is really not getting one a "negative"... I mean lots of firms (and I think most tbh) don't have FT seats for all interns and some have near none. I guess its better to get one that not... but from an employer standpoint.... seems like their loss is our gain. Maybe I'm missing it....
Anyway... My thoughts/advice.
- Unless this is just an outright lie... just say they didn't plan on offering FT to interns due to size/needs. It's a family office after all, doesn't sound like the kind of place that would always offer. You can tag on the location stuff if you want to give more justification from a mutual interest stand point (I'd stay miles away from work culture, don't mention it). Either way.... I can't imagine this being a big deal negative or positive, unless you make it one. Just don't see why its something I would care about as an employer.... it was an internship..... FT is not promised or assumed is my starting point belief.
- Overall, you should speak as positive about the internship. Giving any hint of "problems" or even dislike can be a huge red flag to an employer/interviewer. You don't want to be seen as whiny or hard to work with, so just don't go there. If they really probe the whole "why no FT offer?" thing, just make clear it wasn't expected due to firm factors. TBH.... it's not your reason to know why or why not a firm gives an FT offer after an internship... that is up to them clearly. So, you don't really have to "explain" why (like you may know it's because you got drunk and puked on the CEO's shoes at the corp. picnic... but really for "HR" legal reasons, nobody is told...).
That's my two cents, good luck!
Thank you, this was actually super helpful. It was my understanding that they would ask outright (a friend of mine said this) but I have heard conflicting information from others. Appreciate the insight.
glad it helped, and to be clear... you may be asked, it's not a crazy question in any sense. Just don't really see it as a fair/important one from my pov (employer view). And if you did a classic SA style internship at a big firm that is known to hand out lots of return FT offers (like a BB IB), then its a more logical question and maybe the "why not" is a bigger deal (like if word on the street is that Goldman Sachs made FT offers to all interns, and you were SA and didn't get one, then sure, maybe get some more probing). A family office seems hardly the place to have the needs/capacity for a lot of UG hiring, so I would personally be more surprised to think they would give out a lot of FTs.
That may be the contextual difference for those friends of your who think its an issue. Real estate hiring is so much smaller than finance, its just not as usual to get FT returns or even FT hires to UGs, that I can't see it being a "thing" like it might legitimately be in finance world. Similar to big law, I've heard if you don't get a return FT offer from your SA after your 2L year, that recruiting as a 3L sucks hard. Partly due to the "red flag" but mainly due to fact that all the top firms picked from their SA crews and thus don't have open seats for unmatched candidates. Real estate world is far smaller and not so picky.
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